Longread: "The Divorce Tapes"

Story by Beth Raymer in The Cut:

This:

My sister finally said, “Somebody forced me to have sex.” It was a grueling process to get there. She spent the entire morning clutching her stomach, moving around the house from sleeping bag, to bathroom, to bedroom, to back porch, like an animal searching for a place to die. And even after she said it, she refused to tell Mom who the somebody was. “Will you tell me if I guess?” Mom said.

And this:

"That night, my sister and I waited. For the cops to come to the house, for my sister to be questioned, for our mother to tell our father, and for him to go kill the Relative himself. But nothing happened. In the days and weeks that followed, Colleen would approach our mother in hopes of talking about the rape, and Mom would grow emotional."

The heinous act of incest inflicts more than just physical harm; it is a profound mental cruelty that burdens survivors with an unbearable sense of betrayal and violation, especially when family members refuse to acknowledge their role.

This devastating breach of trust shatters innocence, leaving behind deep, insidious scars that remain unseen but deeply felt. The soul is left raw, stripped of trust and security, pushing survivors on a challenging path to reclaim what was taken from them.